This invention relates to a hanger for one or more pairs of pants, in particular, it relates to a pants hanger having a stationary arm and a spring or springs biased against said arm to provide pressure for gripping a pair of pants between the spring or springs and the arm.
Numerous types of pants or trousers hangers have been disclosed over a long period of time. U.S. Pat. No. 707,192 issued to Aiken describes a trousers supporter having parallel rods. The spacing between two rods is barely sufficient to receive the four thicknesses of the trousers material but not wide enough to receive eight thicknesses of material which occurs at the seam portion at the extreme end of the trouser legs. Since this hanger is not adjustable, it is limited to certain trousers with a specific material thickness. This limitation makes this type of hanger unsuitable with the wide variety of materials and thicknesses now available.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,492,325 to Schroeder describes a combination hanger comprised of plurality of spaced parallel arms. The arms are spaced to receive the cuffs of men's trousers between an adjacent pair, however other garments can be draped over the arms as well. Since the arms are fixed with respect to each other, this pants hanger suffers from the same limitation as the above pants hanger with regard to the intended method of supporting pants. As to draping garments over the arms, the lack of a gripping arm requires careful balancing of the garment over the arm to prevent the garment from sliding off and falling to the floor, where it will inevitably become wrinkled or soiled.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,557,407 to Bogaczyk describes a pants hanger having parallel bars in which a pair of pants are held between a pair of bars by the friction force between the surface of bars and pants. This technique is very sensitive to the fabric materials or fabric thickness and is likewise not suitable for hanging wide variety of pants.
U.S. Pat. No. 853,527 to Tye discloses a trousers hanger with a plurality of fingers proximally mounted to a plurality of corresponding pins which are parallel to each other and vertically disposed, enabling the distal end of each finger to swing horizontally. The distal ends of the first and last fingers are urged together by a compressed spring between the extended proximal ends of the two fingers on the opposite side of the pins. Since only the distal ends of the fingers are compressed together, this hanger does not provide a pressure along the length of the fingers. As a result, the weight of the pants pulling on one side can pull and stretch the pants material with undesirable results.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,127,333 to Hall et al. discloses a garment hanger with a plurality of pairs of fingers. Each pair of fingers are connected at a proximal end to each other and are free at the distal ends. Furthermore, the free ends of each pair are compressed together by a bolt and nut adjacent the proximal end of the gripping fingers. This patent suffers from the same disadvantage as the previous patent, in that only the distal ends of each pair are compressed together, which can result in misshaped pants due to uneven stretching and pulling of the fabric.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,607,066 to Hebberd discloses a pants rack assembly having two rigid outer fingers and two floating inner fingers which are pressed against the outer fingers by two springs disposed between them. The springs are supported by an additional spring support arm disposed between the two inner fingers. This patent can support two pairs of pants between two finger gripping members but it requires a middle spring support arm which increases manufacturing costs and thus increases the price of the assembly. Additionally, the presence of the two coil springs prevent a person from draping a garment, such as a skirt, necktie, or other item, over one of the inner fingers. If several of these assemblies were to be placed next to each other, it would be difficult to figure out which fingers are stationary and which fingers are floating to determine which way drape the article of clothing.
Accordingly, none of the prior art hangers provide a simple construction for providing pressure along the length of a supporting arm to grip a garment. It is therefore an object of this invention to provide a pants hanger which simplifies the pants hanging process and suffers from none of the disadvantages of the prior art. It is another object of the invention to provide a modular hanging unit that can be easily assembled into hanging array for hanging and draping multiple pairs of pants. It is also an object of the invention to provide an integrated hanging rack for hanging and draping multiple pairs of pants. It is yet another objective of this invention that extend the above mention objectives to hanging skirt, neck tie and other items. It is finally an object of this invention to provide all of the features in a device which is inexpensive to manufacture.